Michael Cohen is sworn in to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill.

From J Scott Applewhite/AP/Shutterstock.

During his explosive Capitol Hill hearing last week, Michael Cohen’s position on a presidential pardon was unambiguous. “I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump,” Cohen told the House Oversight Committee. But a new report published Tuesday could complicate that statement. According to The Wall Street Journal,Stephen Ryan, then a lawyer for Cohen, discussed a possible pardon with Trump’s legal team after investigators raided the president’s former attorney and fixer’s office and hotel room last April, and implied that Cohen would cooperate with investigators if he didn’t receive one.

People familiar with the discussions told the Journal they took place while Ryan was working with Trump’s legal team to determine whether documents seized in the raid were protected under attorney-client privilege. Trump’s lawyers reportedly “dismissed the idea of a pardon at the time,” though Rudy Giuliani “left open the possibility that the president could grant Mr. Cohen one in the future.” (Giuliani told the Journal that he “always give[s] the same answer” when approached about pardons, “which is, ‘The president is not going to consider any pardons at this time and nobody should think that he is.’” He said he would “assume [lawyers] representing Cohen” were among those with whom he’d discussed the matter.)

If Cohen knew about the ask, he could face accusations of lying to Congress. At present, it’s not clear whether Cohen himself was behind the discussion, or even aware of it—“Mr. Cohen stands by his testimony before the House Oversight Committee,” a spokeswoman told the Journal. Either way, the story will almost certainly give the president and his defenders new ammunition to attack Cohen’s credibility. House Republicans tore into Cohen as he testified, painting him as a liar whose word couldn’t be trusted (and ignoring the fact that the same could be said of the president, who was often the beneficiary of Cohen’s lies and bullying). Their tactics were seemingly designed to insulate Trump from allegations that he directed Cohen to violate campaign-finance laws, knew of Roger Stone’s contacts with WikiLeaks, and may have encouraged Donald Trump Jr.’s efforts to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Reports that at least one attorney for Cohen broached a potential pardon could well play into the characterization, made by the president and his allies, of the former Trump lawyer as “fraudulent and dishonest,” and his testimony as “totally discredited.” That’s obviously not true. Not only did much of Cohen’s testimony square with what we already knew, but the ex-lawyer also brought receipts—including checks that seemed to confirm his claim that, in the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump had him pay off Stormy Daniels, the porn actress with whom he allegedly had an affair, and then reimbursed him. Still, another alleged mistruth gives Cohen’s critics grounds to further question his credibility—whether they’re arguing in good faith or not.